Kendama In This Video:

Black Hops, it starts with a Triple or Nothing, which is exactly like Double or Nothing, except you are going to allow it to pass around your fingers just one more time. And when you do that you want to try to keep the strings spread apart on your fingers, just like this, and that will make the descending hops that you do off this trick quite a bit easier.

Once you have the yoyo into your Triple or Nothing, what I like to do is hop the yoyo from side to side. As you jump the yoyo up you are going to let the string off the finger that is closest to the yoyo. Then you are going to hop the yoyo off to the opposite side. The reason why you would want to do that is because the strings are going to be spread apart just a little bit further when you do that. When you are doing Black Hops you want to make sure that you are always landing on just the outside string. Just a couple of those tips, keeping the string spread apart on your fingers, and hopping to either side where the string is furthest apart, that should help you land that trick just a little more often.

Once you have gone through that you are going to end up in a Trapeze, and then you get to go into the second half of the trick, which is really the harder part of the trick. For this you are going to hop the yoyo up and then cross your hand pass the string and then hook it and then bring it back out and land it again on the outside string. You are going to do this, you are always going to try to land on the outside string, until you get it basically three times out, just like you would for your Triple or Nothing. Then you are going to let these fingers drop the string and you are going to twist the yoyo out two times, similar to how you would in Triple or Nothing.

Again, this part is pretty tricky, so let me give you a couple of tips on it. The first thing is once you get this first one, and then you are going to go for this second one, what you will see me do is I kind of bend my finger down and out, just a little bit, and that helps to push the string back to the top of this finger. You will see I do the same thing with this finger when I hop it back out here. And at the same time I also point the finger that I am using to get the string up and to the outside a little bit. And again that just helps to push the rest of the strings back onto the back of the finger, that’s about to catch the yoyo. A lot of times kids feel like their fingers are going to be too small to do this trick. But, if you are doing that same thing, where you are constantly keeping the string on the back part of your finger, then you will always have enough room to catch the yoyo, really, no matter how small your fingers are. Just about anybody should be able to learn this trick, even if they are very young.

This is just one of those tricks that takes tons and tons and tons of practice to get down. I learned it by just practicing the first half all by itself until I got a lot better at doing these types of hops, bringing the yoyo down. Once I got that part down I would start with a trapeze and work on the second half of the trick, again, it is still really challenging to get every single time. Once you practice it you can get it and nail it and getting used to hitting it every single time. It is a great trick for showing off, but it is also the pinnacle of the trick ladder, so if you are someone who has ambitions to go through the trick ladder, this is one that you really need to get down.

Just keep practicing it, it will take a long time but eventually you will get it. That is Black Hops.